A complete illustrated Guide to the PC Hardware Karbosguide.com Welcome to Michael Karbo's Online Service. Here you will find a modern online- magazine with more than 500 illustrated articles for the critical reader! Use our menu to your left or the sitemap. You may also follow any of the links listed below. We hope that you appreciate our work! ● Start studying the design of a PC motherboard. ● Learn about harddisks and other drives. ● Learn about the PC I/O system. ● Learn about the PC video system. Sitemap See our guestbook and add your comment. Corrections Misspellings, typos or other corrections. Please report!. Karbo's Newsletter: Pentium 4 and AthlonXP. More than 50 photos of old cars free to download! The MP3 article is re-written. Editing photos with Photoshop Cleaning Windows Me for temporary files All modules 7 re-written Copyright (c) 1996 - 2002 Michael B. Karbo. WWW.KARBOSGUIDE.COM. http://www.karbosguide.com/guides/start.htm7/27/2004 4:04:12 AM Sign up! A complete illustrated Guide to the PC Hardware About Michael Karbo NEW: German version. Privacy politic Software Guides Dictionary Photo Gallery Search 1. About PC data 1a. About data 1b. Character tables 2. The PC system board 2a. Introduction 2b. Boot process, system bus 2c. I/O buses 2d. Chip sets 2e. On RAM 3. About CPUs 3a. An intro to CPUs 3b. CPU improvements 3c. 5th gener. CPUs 3d. Cooling and overclocking 3e. 6th gener. CPUs 4. Drives and other storage 4a. Drives 4b. Hard disks 4c. Optic storage media 4d. ZIP etc. 4e. Tape streamers 5. Expansion cards and interfaces 5a. Adapters 5b. EIDE, Ultra DMA, AGP 5c. SCSI, FireWire, USB 6. OSs and file systems 6a. File systems 6b. Windows 95 6c. BIOS, OS, hardware 6d. The Windows 98 page 7. Graphics and sound 7a. Display basics 7b. Graphics cards 7c. About sound cards 7d. Digital music MP3, MOD etc. Main page http://www.karbosguide.com/guides/sitemap.htm7/27/2004 4:04:13 AM Support Karbosguide.com KarbosGuide.com Support our work ● Next page ● Previous page Karbosguide.com a tutorial used globally. It is a work made "con amore". We make no profit from it. However, just a little economical revenue would be great. It takes so much time to update and develop the site with high quality information. You can help us in several ways: ● Click on the banners ● Register as a user and donate a few dollars. ● Tell your friends an partners about Karbosguide.com, share the URL. ● Next page ● Previous page http://www.karbosguide.com/info/support_01.htm7/27/2004 4:04:19 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data ● Next page ● Previous page Our PCs are data processors. The PC's function is simple: to process data, and the processing is done electronically inside the CPU and between the other components. That sounds simple, but what is data, and how is it processed electronically in a PC? That is the subject of these pages. Analog data The signals, which we send each other to communicate, is data. Our daily data have many forms: sound, letters, numbers, and other characters (handwritten or printed), photos, graphics, film. All this data is in its nature analog, which means that it varies in type. In this form, the data-signals are unusable in a PC. The PC can only process concise, simple data formats. Such data can be processed very effectively. Digital data The PC is an electric unit. Therefore, it can only deal with data, which are associated with electricity. That is accomplished using electric switches, which are either off or on. You can compare with regular household switches. If the switch is off, the PC reads numeral 0. If it is on, it is read as numeral one. See the illustration below: http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module1a1.htm (1 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05:11 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. With our electric switches, we can write 0 or 1. We can now start our data processing! The PC is filled with these switches (in the form of transistors). There are literally millions of those in the electronic components. Each represents either a 0 or a 1, so we can process data with millions of 0s and 1s. Please click the banners to support our work! Bits [top] Each 0 or 1 is called a bit. Bit is an abbreviation of the expression BInary digiT. It is called binary, since it is derived from the binary number system: 0 1 bit http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module1a1.htm (2 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05:11 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. 1 1 bit 0110 4 bit 01101011 8 bit The binary number system [top] The binary number system is made up of digits, just like our common decimal system (10 digit system). But, while the decimal system uses digits 0 through 9, the binary system only uses digits 0 and 1. If you are interested in understanding the binary number system, then here is a brief course. See if you can follow the system. See how numbers are constructed in the binary system, using only 0s and 1s: Numbers, as known in the decimal-system Same numbers in binary system 0 0 1 1 2 10 3 11 4 100 5 101 6 110 7 111 8 1000 Digital data [top] http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module1a1.htm (3 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05:11 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. We have seen that the PC appears capable of handling data, if it can receive them as 0s and 1s. This data format is called digital. If we can translate our daily data from their analog format to digital format, they will appear as chains of 0s and 1s, then the PC can handle them. So, we must be able to digitize our data. Pour text, sounds, and pictures into a funnel, from where they emerge as 0s and 1s: Let us see how this can be accomplished. ● Next page ● Previous page Learn more [top] Read more about the boot process and system bus in Module 2b Read more about I/O buses in module 2c Read more about the motherboard chip set in module 2d Read more about RAM in module 2e Read about EIDE in module 5b [Main page] [Contact] [Karbo's Dictionary] [The Software Guides] http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module1a1.htm (4 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05:11 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. Copyright (c) 1996-2001 by Michael B. Karbo. www.karbosguide.com. http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module1a1.htm (5 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05:11 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a2. About Bytes Contents: ● Introduction ● ASCII ● About text and code ● Data in files ● Next page ● Previous page Introduction The most basic data processing is word processing. Let us use that as an example. When we do word processing, we work at a keyboard similar to a typewriter. There are 101 keys, where we find the entire alphabet A, B, C, etc. We also find the digits from 0 to 9 and all the other characters we need:, ;():_?!"#*%&etc All these characters must be digitized. They must be expressed in 0s and 1s. Bits are organized in groups of 8. A group of 8 bits is called a byte. 8 bits = 1 byte, that is the system. Then, what can we do with bytes? First, let us see how many different bytes we can construct. A byte is an 8 digit number. We link 0s and 1s in a pattern. How many different ones can we make? Here is one: 01110101, and here is another: 10010101. We can calculate that you can make 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 different patterns, since each of the 8 bits can have 2 values. ● 2 8 (two in the power of eight) is 256. Then there are 256 different bytes! Now we assign a byte to each letter and other characters. And since we have 256 patterns to choose from, there is plenty of room for all. Here you see some examples of the http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module1a2.htm (1 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05:22 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. "translation:" Character Bit pattern Byte number Character Bit pattern Byte number A 01000001 65 ¼ 10111100 188 B 01000010 66 . 00101110 46 C 01000011 67 : 00111010 58 a 01100001 97 $ 00100100 36 b 01100010 98 \ 01011100 92 o 01101111 111 ~ 01111110 126 p 01110000 112 1 00110001 49 q 01110001 113 2 00110010 50 r 01110010 114 9 00111001 57 x 01111000 120 © 10101001 169 y 01111001 121 > 00111110 62 z 01111010 122 ‰ 10001001 137 When you write the word "summer", you write 6 letters. If the computer has to process that word, it will be digitized to 6 bytes. In other words, the word summer occupies 6 bytes in the PC RAM, when you type it, and 6 bytes on the hard disk, if you save it. ASCII [top] ASCII means American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is an industry standard, which assigns letters, numbers, and other characters within the 256 slots available in the 8 bit code. http://www.karbosguide.com/hardware/module1a2.htm (2 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05:22 AM [...]... promoted to captain! Todays PCs are just as powerful as minicomputers and mainframes were not too many years ago A powerful PC can easily keep up with the expensive workstations How have we advanced this far? http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module 2a1 .htm (1 of 7)7/27/2004 4:05:28 AM An illustrated Guide to Motherboards Please click the banners to support our work! The PC' s success [top] The PC came... http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module1b.htm (3 of 9)7/27/2004 4:05:25 AM Karbos Guide 10 9 m à m 11 0 n n 11 1 o o 11 2 p p 11 3 q q 11 4 r r 11 5 s s 11 6 t t 11 7 u u 11 8 v v 11 9 w w 12 0 x x 12 2 z z 12 3 { { { 12 4 | | | 12 5 } } } 12 6 ~ ~ 12 7 Then the numbers from 012 8 to 0255 Notice the leading zero ASCII-number Common characters Symbol Wingdings (in Windows ) 012 8 € &; € 012 9 013 0 013 1 013 2 013 3 013 4... 013 5 http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module1b.htm (4 of 9)7/27/2004 4:05:25 AM Karbos Guide 013 6 013 7 013 8 013 9 014 0 014 1 014 2 014 3 014 4 014 5 014 6 014 7 014 8 014 9 015 0 015 1 015 2 015 3 015 4 015 5 015 6 015 7 015 8 015 9 016 1 Ă Ă 016 2 Â Â 016 3 Ê Ê 016 4 Ô Ô 016 5 Ơ Ơ 016 6 Ư Ư 016 0 http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module1b.htm... interpreted as three bytes Let us read them as bytes: 0 011 00 01, 0 011 0 010 , and 0 011 0 011 When we convert these byte binary numbers to decimal numbers, you will see that they read as 49, 50, and 51 in decimal numbers To interpret these numbers, we have to look at the ASCII table You will find that you have typed the numbers 1, 2, and 3 About text and code [top] Now we have seen the PCs user data, which are always... how are the components connected What are their functions, and how are they tied together to form a PC? That is the subject of Click and Learn So, please continue reading http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module 2a1 .htm (3 of 7)7/27/2004 4:05:28 AM An illustrated Guide to Motherboards The von Neumann Model of the PC [top] Computers have their roots 300 years back in history Mathematicians and philosophers... only a medium for storage It could be used for any type of data Here, it holds important system data, values to be used during the start process These information take up maybe 10 0 or http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module 2a2 .htm (3 of 7)7/27/2004 4:05:35 AM An illustrated Guide to Motherboards 200 bytes of data, and storage in the CMOS makes them instantly available to the POST and BIOS programs... 4:05:25 AM Karbos Guide 016 7 Đ Đ 016 8 ă ă 016 9 â â 017 0 ê ê 017 1 ô ô 017 2 ơ ơ 017 3 - - 017 4 đ đ 017 5 017 6 017 7 017 8 017 9 018 0 ì 018 1 à à 018 2 ả ả 018 3 ã ã 018 4 á ữ á 018 5 ạ ạ 018 6 018 7 ằ ằ 018 8 ẳ ẳ 018 9 ẵ ẵ 019 0 ắ ắ 019 1 019 2 019 3 019 4 019 5 019 6 019 7 http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module1b.htm (6 of 9)7/27/2004 4:05:25 AM Karbos Guide 019 8 ặ... characters, based on which language you want to write in Foreign letters are placed in this part q Learn more about the ASCII table in Module 1b An example Let us imagine a stream of bits sent from the keyboard to the computer When you type, streams of 8 bits are sent to the computer Let us look at a series of bits: 0 011 00 010 011 0 010 0 011 0 011 Bits are combined into bytes (each 8 bits) These 24 bits are... http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module 2a1 .htm (6 of 7)7/27/2004 4:05:28 AM An illustrated Guide to Motherboards [Main page] [Contact] [Karbo's Dictionary] Copyright (c) 19 96-20 01 by Michael B Karbo www.karbosguide.com http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module 2a1 .htm (7 of 7)7/27/2004 4:05:28 AM [The Software Guides] An illustrated Guide to Motherboards Please click the banners to support our work! Click & Learn Module 2a. 2 The system... AGP and module 5c about Firewire Read module 7a about monitors, and 7b on graphics card Read module 7c about sound cards, and 7d on digital sound and music [Main page] [Contact] [Karbo's Dictionary] [The Software Guides] Copyright (c) 19 96-20 01 by Michael B Karbo www.karbosguide.com http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module1b.htm (9 of 9)7/27/2004 4:05:25 AM An illustrated Guide to Motherboards KarbosGuide.com . 0 011 1 010 58 a 011 000 01 97 $ 0 010 010 0 36 b 011 00 010 98 010 111 00 92 o 011 011 11 111 ~ 011 111 10 12 6 p 011 10000 11 2 1 0 011 00 01 49 q 011 100 01 113 2 0 011 0 010 50 r 011 10 010 11 4 9 0 011 10 01 57 x 011 110 00 12 0. Module 1a. About data. "translation:" Character Bit pattern Byte number Character Bit pattern Byte number A 010 000 01 65 ¼ 10 111 100 18 8 B 010 00 010 66 . 0 010 111 0 46 C 010 00 011 67 : 0 011 1 010 . data [top] http://www.karbosguide.com /hardware/ module 1a1 .htm (3 of 5)7/27/2004 4:05 :11 AM KarbosGuide.com. Module 1a. About data. We have seen that the PC appears capable of handling data, if it can receive them as 0s and 1s. This data format